Your list is your first contact, and it contains pretty much everyone that’s passed through the system you’ve set up, from the freebie seekers, to the people that didn’t know what they signed up for, and of course those who are going to make you a whole bunch of cash in several different ways.
Your lists are there for one thing, and one thing only, and that’s to act as your own media outlet, and increase your resources (something that many businesses miss). Turning your list into customers and long-term customers is quite straight forward. You’ll be sending them announcements relating to your new products and services. It’s as they should be used, and most often are.
Two more extremely profitable things that your list can do that people rarely ever seem to catch hold of (even more profitable than making direct sales) is build your affiliate base and on top of that build your joint venture base. First up, the affiliate building. Remember we talked previously about promotion to build resources instead of make the profits? Well this works in exactly the same way. The reason we don’t see it too often, aside from the people that have been told about it, or sussed it out already, is who in their right mind would promote, and in fact spend the two most important things (their money and their time) on promotion when they’re not going to make any cash out of it directly.
The sooner that you, as a business-person, online or offline can see how important it is to look beyond immediate profits from ad campaigns, the sooner you will start to make some real money. I guess it’s overlooked by so many simply because in today’s age of the Internet, everyone wants something right now, they don’t want to wait. The longer it takes to carry out, the more they overlook it as something that won’t be an immediate fix for their situation.
One thing I do want to mention is, if you have seventy percent, or even more to give away through your products’ commissions, don’t be afraid to tell people about it. Not so long ago there was a spate of big affiliate commission sites popping up that offered anywhere from 80-100% commissions that did incredibly well on the resource building side of things simply on the basis of promoting their high commissions more than the product itself.
So whatever you do, don’t think that gaining affiliates is all about that little banner at the top of your sites with 80% for affiliates written in big letters. Hey, we spend money to promote free products to build our lists all the time, why can’t we do the same for our affiliates? Well we can, and to be honest, one good affiliate is more valuable than a hundred subscribers, even a thousand subscribers in my eyes, for the simple reason that they may have an audience of tens or even hundreds of thousands on their lists that they’re willing to give you access to.
Now as far as turning your list into joint ventures goes, this is a pretty easy but also open ended and rather variable in results until you actually see what these people are capable of further down the line. Similar to gaining feedback and new affiliates from your list you can do it the same way and gain joint venture partners from your list.
Do not relegate your joint venture prospects to those who visit your website, and the individuals you pick out through the top performing affiliates, but to actively seek them through your list. For example, an experienced marketer that subscribes to a selection of lists to keep up with what’s going on around them, happens to subscribe to your list where you’re selling an infoproduct. He or she won’t buy your product, because they’ve got their system set up already and it just so happens, that they only promote their own stuff to their own lists, unless it’s a joint venture (this is very common among the big guys by the way), they won’t buy your big product for the same reason, and they won’t be joining your affiliate program for the above reason. He or she is a heavy hitter with a big list, but you’re missing out. These are the people you’re aiming to cater for here. It’s not good if you’re leaving massive holes like this, because you’re missing out on some massive profit potential. In fact, as we speak the majority of marketers out there are very obviously leaving these types of holes.
The problem with joint venturing through a list at this stage is it becomes kind of a lottery if you’re not careful. You can’t just send out a mailing asking for anyone with a list over ten thousand people to contact you for higher commissions, because then everyone else feels cheated and you may alienate some potential affiliates. In general terms joint ventures should be a private thing, the deal will also vary from person to person, depending on your product, their list size, what they want in return and what you can grant in return. The best way to go about this is to keep it that way. Don’t do a mass mailing just requesting joint ventures for the reasons above, we can’t do that for this particular resource.
What I’d suggest you do instead, which you should be doing with your list anyway, is carry on as your normally do, sending out your non-intrusive surveys to help with your research and find out as much info as you can about the people on your list, for something in return. For example a short valuable report that you’ve written on your area of expertise. In exchange you’re getting vital info that not only allows you to tailor your ads to your list providing a better response rate, but at the same time you’re building up a picture of who the good joint venture prospects are. Once you’ve done that, you can go through the results you’ve collected, and pick the top performers, the knowledgeable, and the people with the most resources, and contact them individually.
So you see, your list is your first contact that you have with your customers and the potential is there to turn them into top affiliates and joint venture partners. Leave them in the dark, and you’re missing out on potentially thousands, tens of thousands in profit, or more.
Technorati Tags: what to do with your list, affiliates, joint ventures, surveys, email marketing tips, online business strategies
